The Genie was the world's first nuclear-armed
air-to-air weapon and was the most powerful interceptor missile ever deployed
by the U.S. Air Force.

In 1954 the Douglas Aircraft Co. began work on a
small unguided nuclear-armed air-to-air missile and started full-scale
development a year later. In 1955 and early 1956, F-89D Scorpion aircraft made
the first test firings. The top-secret project had several code names,
including "Bird Dog," "Ding Dong" and "High Card." Finally, it was designated
MB-1 and called the Genie. The MB-1 became operational in 1957, and the first
and only live firing of a nuclear Genie was July 19, 1957.

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Powered by a Thiokol SR49 solid-fueled
rocket motor, it was armed with a 1.5-kT nuclear warhead and had
flip-out fins for flight stability. F-89J,
F-101B and F-106A interceptors
carried the Genie. The firing aircraft had to pull away in a sharp turn
to escape the blast after launching the weapon, a challenging feat for
subsonic fighter jets.

In June 1963, the Genie rockets were designated in
the AIR-2 series. The MB-1 became the AIR-2A, the MB-1-T was the ATR-2A, and
the MMB-1 was the AIR-2B. The training rocket was officially designated ATR-2A
and also known as ATR-2N.

Douglas built more than 1,000 Genie rockets before
terminating production in 1962. However, in 1965, Thiokol began producing a
motor for the AIR-2 with a longer life span and wider firing temperature
limits. After the mid 1970s, upgraded Genie rockets were designated AIR-2B.
The Air Force removed the last AIR-2 rockets from the inventory during the
early 1980s.

McDonnell Douglas Air-2A "Genie" Rocket

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AIR-2 Genie

The AIR-2A Genie
is an air-to-air rocket with a nuclear warhead designed for use against
formations of enemy bombers. It has no guidance system and is powered by a
solid-propellant rocket motor. The Air-2 (formerly known as the MB-1) was first
test launched in 1956 and became operational in January 1957. On July 19, 1957,
a Genie was launched at 18,000 from an F-89J interceptor and detonated over
Yucca Flats, Nevada. It was the first and only test detonation of a U.S.
nuclear-tipped air-to-air rocket.

The AIR-2A was carried primarily by F-89J, F-101B,
and F-106A interceptor aircraft. Thousands were built for the USAF before
production ended in 1962; they remained in service until the mid-1980s. A
training version of the Genie with an inert rocket motor and no nuclear warhead,
known as the ATR-2, was also in service. The Genie on display was originally
received by the Museum as an ATR-2N. It is mounted on an MF-9 trailer for
transport.

Courtesy US AIR FORCE Museum

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An AIR-2Genie
nuclear rocket in position to be up-loaded between the aft Falcon missile rails.
The blue colored band indicates that this is a practice or training round.

The primary weapon of the F-106, as it was designed, was the
McDonnell Douglass AIR-2A Genie. AIR stood for Air Intercept Rocket. The
genie was technically an unguided weapon , although the Hughes MA-1 system would
track the target, arm and fire the missile, and pull the aircraft into a hard
climbing turn away from the blast zone, and then detonate the nuclear warhead at
a predetermined range. Maximum flight time was only 12 seconds, with a
range of a little over 6 miles, at a speed of Mach 3. It was developed
under project "Ding Dong" in 1955, with the first test firing with a dummy in
July 1959. Only one actual live fire field test was ever maid over the
Nevada desert.

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After being launched at a formation of enemy bombers, the
Genie's stabilizer fins extended and the 36,600 pound thrust solid-fuel Thikok
TU-289 rocket ignited driving the weapon toward the enemy. The 1.5 kilo-ton
warhead had an estimated destruct radius of a little under one cubic mile.
It was calculated that enemy targets outside the primary field of destruction
would be disabled by the electromagnetic pulse of the blast knocking out
their electronics system.

The Genie was deactivated and removed from the Air Force
Arsenal in the mid 1980s.

The Douglas Genie (MB-1 Ding-Dong, AIR-2) was an
unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5kt W25 nuclear warhead. It was deployed
by the United States Air Force (from the late 1950s) and the Royal Canadian
Air Force (from 1 February 1968 to the 1980s) during the Cold War. Production
ended in 1962 after over 1000 were produced, with some related training and
test derivatives occurring later.

Development

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Operation Plumbbob Nuclear Test, a live test of nuclear
AIR-2A Genie rocket on July 19th 1957. Fired by an US Air Force F-89J over
Yucca Flats Nuclear Test Site at an altitude of ~15,000 ft (4.5 km or
about 3 miles).

The interception of Soviet bombers was a major
military preoccupation of the late 1940s and 1950s. The revelation in 1947
that the Soviet Union had produced a reverse-engineered copy of the BoeingB-29Superfortress, the Tupolev Tu-4 (NATO reporting name
'Bull'), which could reach the continental United States in a one-way attack,
followed by the Soviets developing the atomic bomb in 1949, produced
considerable anxiety.

Against high-speed bombers, the World War
II-vintage fighter armament of machine guns and cannon was inadequate. The use
of large volleys of unguided rockets was not much more satisfactory, and true
air-to-air missiles were in their infancy. In 1954
Douglas Aircraftbegan a program to investigate the
possibility of a nuclear-armed air-to-air weapon. To ensure simplicity and
reliability, the weapon would be unguided, the large blast radius making
relative inaccuracy mostly irrelevant.

The resultant weapon carried a 1.5-kiloton W25
nuclear warhead and was powered by a Thiokol SR49-TC-1 solid-fuel rocket
engine of 162 kN (36,500 lbf) thrust. It had a range of slightly under 10 km
(6.2 mi). Targeting, arming, and firing of the weapon were coordinated by the
launch aircraft's fire-control system. Detonation was by time-delay fuse,
although the fuse would not arm the warhead until engine burn-out, to give the
launch aircraft time to turn and escape. Lethal radius of the blast was
estimated to be about 300 meters (1,000 ft).

The first test firings (of inert rounds) took
place in 1956, and the weapon entered service with the designation MB-1 in
1957. The popular name was Genie, but it was often nick-named
'Ding-Dong.' About 3,150 rounds were produced before production ended in 1963.
In 1962 the weapon was redesignated AIR-2A Genie. Many rounds were upgraded
with improved, longer-duration rocket motors, the upgraded weapons sometimes
known (apparently only semi-officially) as AIR-2B. An inert training round,
originally MB-1-T and later ATR-2A, was also produced in small numbers.

A live Genie was detonated only once, in
Operation Plumbbobon 19 July 1957. It was fired by
a Montana Air National Guard
F-89Jover Yucca Flats Nuclear Test Site at an
altitude of 4,500 m (15,000 ft).A group of USAF officers volunteered to
stand underneath the blast to prove that the weapon was safe for use over
populated areas. Whether this affected the health of the officers is
unknown.

The only non-U.S. user was Canada, whose CF-101 Voodoos
carried Genies until 1984 via a dual-key arrangement where the missiles were
kept under American custody, and released to Canada under circumstances
requiring their use. The RAF briefly considered the missile for use on the
English Electric Lightning.

The F-89J that was used to launch the only live
test is on static display at the Montana Air National Guard in Great Falls,
MT.